Joonhwan Lee skyrockets to the world elite U81kg

He is 20 years old and Korea’s new star in judo, his name is Joonhwan Lee, and he is the fashion man in the most attractive category U81kg. Lee is so fast that he can hit ippon before you say his name. He has burst onto the professional circuit with the insolence of youth and the quality of a veteran.

Lee came out in Georgia two weeks ago. It is clear that he likes size XXL challenges because in Tbilisi he defeated world number one and national hero Tato Grigalashvili in the final. Taking into account that the Georgian is a wonder of judo, you can already get an idea of ​​the quality that the Korean treasures.

In Ulaanbaatar he had the audacity to finish off the reigning Olympic champion, Takanori Nagase, despite having two shido against him. In the semifinals he got rid of the Dutchman Frank de Wit, before facing the Austrian Shamil Borchashvili in the final.

In addition to being fast, Lee has different techniques and attacks from both sides. Let's take his fight against de Wit as an example. The Dutchman is powerful, he attacks forcefully, but he needs a little time to place his hands. Lee gave him no choice, because before de Wit could launch his attack, the Korean was already executing his. Two consecutive waza-ari, both times nullifying an attack by de Wit, propelled the Korean to the final at lightning speed, the second consecutive in two Grand Slam appearances. Lee wins and, by the way, he does it against the tenors of the category, as if he wanted to mark territory as soon as he arrived.

Lee was spectacular! He's on his way to becoming a very, very good judoka. He does everything simply, well and quickly. With Borchashvili it seemed that the Korean was having fun, that he played with him before devouring him. He first scored waza-ari masterfully when he barely had room and then he was biding his time, as if he had ten years of experience. The Austrian, who was losing, conceded a second shido twenty seconds from the end, because the one who was managing the fight was Lee. Time will tell, but that young man, Lee Jooghwan, has the look of a legend.

The Kazakh Abylaikhan Zhubanazar and Frank de Wit (NED) fought for the kind of bronze that, in the absence of gold, makes one leave a tournament happy. The Dutchman made a mistake and conceded waza-ari with one minute and eighteen seconds remaining. De Wit scored waza-ari back, not wanting to let an eleventh grand slam medal slip away but Zhubanazar was looking for the medal too; not to be found. De Wit repeated his waza-ari with his trademark o-uchi-gari.

The Olympic champion against the former European champion fought for a second bronze, to give you an idea of the level of the category: Nagase vs. Khubetsov. Nagase did not show much on this second day; we had to wait until this fight to catch a glimpse of his quality. He won by osae-komi, a logical victory, but he will have to work much harder to be at his usual level at the World Championships in Tashkent.